Thursday, September 30, 2010

Treating PTSD: A guide to the guidelines

A paper in the new issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress examines the various guidelines that exist to treat PTSD and recommends that a set of global treatment guidelines be established.

"Several guidelines have been published around the world that describe best practice interventions for people who have developed post-traumatic stress disorder," said the study's lead author, David Forbes, in a prepared statement. "While there is some consistency across these guidelines, there are also important points of difference. This can be confusing for those using the guidelines, whether they are clinicians, people affected by trauma, or service planners such as government. It is sometimes hard for them to understand why these guidelines differ and which of the recommendations are most appropriate for their requirements."

You can read the abstract to the paper here. (Full access is restricted to journal subscribers.)